This is a bit of a rant on some of the boss fights (not so much the final bosses (at least not yet!)) as of beginning Chapter 3 (Playing on hard difficulty). My irritation at these fights has been growing over these 2 chapters since they aren't so much difficult as broken.

I've just started on Chapter 3. So Far the end of chapter bosses have been challenging (difficulty is definitely higher than the First Chapter at the same difficulty), but with a bit of thought and a few failures (and a FAQ..) I can eventually work out a strategy to defeat those bosses. The end of Prologue boss though has been the most difficult so far, but eventually I found a method that worked most of the time to ensure victory.

There are however bosses that I think are straight up garbage, since their attack AI seems to have broken some important limits. In Chapter 1, while being forced to escort Dorothy around, you often take up bounties on Boss monsters from the Bracer message board.

Unfortunately, these bosses can and do target the escorted NPC, sometimes killing them immediately before your first turn has even begun. Being forced to return to the title screen or retry a battle before even having a first turn is complete bull.

Having some attack AI variation is good, but there needs to be some checks in place to stop this type of enemy attack AI behaviour. SPD enhancing gear helps, but is no guarantee as well; for example I had my SPD @ 28 for Estelle when I went up against Hapilsag (Scorpian like boss enemy), yet before I even had a first turn they one shotted Dorothy, immediately ending the game (that bosses SPD is 23 FYI).

I'm now going to have to face against "The Penguin Lord", which from my first few fights is using some already stupidly broken attack AI sequences. I've already had 2 cases where I have lost the fight before my first turn even began; one where the NPC was killed straight off, another where every member in my party was knocked out (zero health).

I can't stand these fights since even being able to consider winning the fight requires reloading the fight until you have an attack AI sequence that is tolerable (in my case, it will be an attack sequence that doesn't result in the game over screen, before my first turn).

Too me it seems like this is a bug, but not so much as an accidental one, but an oversight in the combat AI design. I doubt it will be ever fixed, but I just needed to vent.

Arghhh!!!, Thanks for letting me rage, if anyone else is having trouble feel free to rage as well :)

What great timing!

I've just come across Gilbert in Chapter 6 as you posted this and am back to being frustrated at the AI attack randomizer.

It has been pretty easy though from Chapter 4 onwards (the challenge disappeared), which has made battles a little less interesting (though the character development has kept me hooked), and then this battle happens.

Reloading the battle so that the randomizer doesn't kill me before my first turn is garbage and I agree about it being a "horrible and lazy game design". It doesn't matter if I eventually win this battle (like the penguin battle in Chapter 3), since I wont get the satisfaction of mastering it, since it is down to luck whether I win or not.

While I'm at it, I might as well add my frustration at the fact quartz can't be obtained from other party members when they leave. I have spent a bit of time getting a configuration on Estelle that I am happy with, but I don't use the "Heaven's Eye" gem on her (giving it to another pary member).

I had to reload an earlier save and then find a less ideal setup which included this gem on her, because of this. Really wish they at least provided you with another Information gem, or made it so that your current party members that leave automatically remove their quartz first.

Alright, rant off!, time to beat my head against the wall until I win this battle, and get back to the parts of the game that are actually enjoyable.

(P.S. If you hear from me again soon, it will likely be with seething rage since I'm still trying to fight through this battle..aiming for a perfect BP can be torture!).

EDIT: I think I was being a little unfair with this battle. There was no NPC to get one shotted before my first turn and the game does give you the opportunity to purchase/obtain Proxy puppets to protect against death before your first turn. The tactics posted online work well, so this battle wasn't all that difficult in the end.

It's a shame that "Heaven's Eye"/"Information" doesn't give status immunity information for enemies (especially bosses) since elemental resistance is rarely helpful (Time arts don't seem to care about resistances as far as I can tell and since you are bound to have Action & Cast for it's huge benefits, just about everyone should have access to at least a few really powerful time arts). Once you defeat the boss you get that info, but then it doesn't matter anymore.